Driveclub PS+ & Final Fantasy VII Remake News - Game Watch Weekly #22

Sony has announced that the "Ultimate Player Edition" 1TB PS4 model will be coming to Europe on July 15th 2015. The new model, in addition to having twice the storage of the old one, is also 10% lighter (at 2.5kg) and uses 8% less energy. The formerly glossy hard drive cover now has a matte finish - this means that finger prints and dust won't show up as easily. Sony has not suggested when or if this model will be coming to North America.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Won't Just Be A Copy

Speaking to Wired, the director of the Final Fantasy VII remake, Tetsuya Nomura said that "In terms of taking such an iconic game and giving it a fresh feel, we can't go into too much detail but we're not intending for this to become a one-to-one remake, or just the original Final Fantasy 7 with better graphics."

The remake means that both an HD version of the original game, and a remake will be coming to PS4.

I must say, I wonder if this was a reactionary move by Square Enix after the PlayStation Experience last year when they announced the HD version. From the reaction of the crowd to their huge (unintentional, I'm sure) troll moment when they revealed it - I think, and I'm sure they had the same idea, that a remake would be something economically viable to them. That means I don't think it'll be out for a LONG time, and I think they've spent the last 7 months making that trailer. We'll see what happens.

20th Anniversary PS4 Controller Getting Standalone Release

Sony have announced that the 20th Anniversary DualShock 4 will get a release in September this year. While there was no word on a North America release, Europe was confirmed to be getting the controller which is grey and black in tribute to the PSOne original controller and console colour scheme.

Not being able to get a 20th Anniversary PS4 was incredibly annoying, but for me - and I'm sure many other PlayStation fans - getting the controller is the next best thing. Come September, I'll be all over this!

Driveclub's PS Plus Edition

After a release which was supposed to happen when the PS4 launched - yup, that IS nearly two years ago now - Driveclub is FINALLY getting the promised PS Plus edition. It appeared on the PS Store in the weekly update on Tuesday, but was promptly taken down again, but the edition is now available for PS Plus members! President of Sony Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, said that "To make absolutely certain that all players have the smoothest and most stable experience possible we [Sony] are going to be duly cautious about how we release the game this time around."

Sony Investigating Slow Download Speeds In Europe

Sony is investigating numerous reports of slow download speeds in Europe. This is affecting users of the PS4 and PS3, but no Vita issues have been reported. Sony said on their forums that they "are aware of reports that some users are experiencing slower than usual download speeds from the PlayStation Store."

On Thursday evening (GMT) I found that a patch for The Witcher that was 500 (ish) MB was going to take 5 hours. Coming back - after it had done about 200 - on Saturday when I started my PS4 for the first time since then, the rest of the 500 was going to take about 30 mins, so issues for me seem to have been fixed. I tested on the Vita and didn't have any issues.

If you're still having issues, let me know on Twitter @Gamotere, and I'll include them in here.

In addition to this, some parts of the PSN have been reported as being down. I can't confirm this myself, again let me know if you're having trouble.